Faculty and researchers in the Department of Structural Engineering at the University of California San Diego are leading projects in the areas of earthquake engineering, natural hazards engineering, geotechnical engineering and geomechanics, structural health monitoring and nondestructive evaluation, computational mechanics, and aerospace and composite structures. These research areas reflect the interdisciplinary nature of structural engineering by bringing together civil, mechanical, and aerospace engineers to solve challenging problems at the forefront of research and practice. Our research plays a critical role in ensuring the safety and sustainability of the built environment and transportation means. The research highlighted in the links below emphasizes both theory and experimentation while promoting discovery and innovation. Our research covers a broad range of structural materials and scales, from nano- and micro-structures consisting of particle assemblies or biological structures to large-scale structures, such as buildings, bridges, aircraft bodies, ship hulls, geotechnical structures, waste repositories, energy structures, and marine and naval structures.